Yazata in the context of "Zoroastrianism in Armenia"

Mithra (Avestan: 𐬨𐬌𐬚𐬭𐬀 Miθra; Old Persian: 𐎷𐎰𐎼 Miθraʰ‍) is an ancient Iranian deity (yazata) of covenants, light, oaths, justice, the Sun, contracts, and friendship. In addition to being the divinity of contracts, Mithra is also a judicial figure, an all-seeing protector of Truth (Asha), and the guardian of cattle, the harvest, and the Waters.

The Romans attributed their Mithraic mysteries to Zoroastrian Persian sources relating to Mithra. Since the early 1970s, the dominant scholarship has noted dissimilarities between the Persian and Roman traditions, making it, at most, the result of Roman perceptions of Zoroastrian ideas.

Atar (Avestan: 𐬁𐬙𐬀𐬭, romanized: ātar) is the Zoroastrian concept of holy fire, sometimes described in abstract terms as "burning and unburning fire" or "visible and invisible fire" (Mirza, 1987:389). It is considered to be the visible presence of Ahura Mazda and his Asha through the eponymous Yazata. The rituals for purifying a fire are performed 1,128 times a year.

In the Avestan language, ātar is an attribute of sources of heat and light, of which the nominative singular form is ātarš, source of Persian ātaš (fire). It was once thought to be etymologically related to the Avestan āθrauuan / aθaurun (Vedic atharvan), a type of priest, but that is now considered unlikely (Boyce, 2002:16). The ultimate etymology of ātar, previously unknown (Boyce, 2002:1), is now believed to be from the Indo-European *h_xeh_xtr- 'fire'. This would make it a cognate to Latin ater (black) and to Albanian vatër (definite form: vatra) "hearth", "fireplace", which was loaned to Romanian vatră "hearth", "fireplace", and thereafter spread to Serbo-Croat vatra "fire" and Ukrainian vatra "bonfire".

Mithraism, also known as the Mithraic mysteries or the Cult of Mithras, was a Roman mystery religion focused on the god Mithras. Although inspired by Iranian worship of the Zoroastrian divinity (yazata) Mithra, the Roman Mithras was linked to a new and distinctive imagery, and the degree of continuity between Persian and Greco-Roman practice remains debatable.The mysteries were popular among the Imperial Roman army from the 1st to the 4th century AD.

Worshippers of Mithras had a complex system of seven grades of initiation and communal ritual meals. Initiates called themselves syndexioi, those "united by the handshake". They met in dedicated mithraea (singular mithraeum), underground temples that survive in large numbers. The cult appears to have had its centre in Rome, and was popular throughout the western half of the empire, as far south as Roman Africa and Numidia, as far east as Roman Dacia, as far north as Roman Britain, and to a lesser extent in Roman Syria in the east.

A Yasht (Middle Persian: 𐭩𐭱𐭲, yšt') is a hymn of worship composed in the Young Avestan language and dedicated to specific Zoroastrian divinities. The term commonly applies to the collection of 21 Yashts, although it may also refer to other texts within the wider Avesta collection.